nt place for landing, and went on signalling and shouting till
the vessel's head was turned toward the shore; and what a scene there
was for them when they landed. The parents of the two betrothed first
pressed on the banks; the poor loving bridegroom had almost lost his
senses. They had scarcely learnt that their dear children had been
saved, when in their strange disguise the latter came forward out of the
bushes to meet them. No one recognized them till they were come quite
close. 'Whom do I see?' cried the mothers. 'What do I see?' cried the
fathers. The preserved ones flung themselves on the ground before them.
'Your children,' they called out; 'a pair.' 'Forgive us!' cried the
maiden. 'Give us your blessing!' cried the young man. 'Give us your
blessing!' they cried both, as all the world stood still in wonder.
'Your blessing!' was repeated the third time; and who would have been
able to refuse it?"

CHAPTER XI

The narrator made a pause, or rather he had already finished his story,
before he observed the emotion into which Charlotte had been thrown by
it. She got up, uttered some sort of an apology, and left the room. To
her it was a well-known history. The principal incident in it had really
taken place with the Captain and a neighbor of her own; not exactly,
indeed, as the Englishman had related it. But the main features of it
were the same. It had only been more finished off and elaborated in its
details, as stories of that kind always are when they have passed first
through the lips of the multitude, and then through the fancy of a
clever and imaginative narrator; the result of the process being usually
to leave everything and nothing as it was.

Ottilie followed Charlotte, as the two friends begged her to do; and
then it was the Earl's turn to remark, that perhaps they had made a
second mistake, and that the subject of the story had been well known
to, or was in some way connected with, the family. "We must take care,"
he added, "that we do no more mischief here; we seem to bring little
good to our entertainers for all the kindness and hospitality which they
have shown us; we will make some excuse for ourselves, and then take our
leave."

"I must confess," answered his companion, "that there is something else
which still holds me here, which I should be very sorry to leave the
house without seeing cleared up or in some way explained. You were too
busy yourself yesterday when we were in the park wi